Hills

Summer is upon us, and my speedwork has been limited to shorter intervals and hills to gain strength.   Last week, I ran hill repeats on a smaller hill off Goshen (close to the YMCA), and had a lot of trouble with the turnover going both up and down.  For the Boston Marathon training back in 2010, Ben Rosario gave me some great advice to make sure to train going down just as much going up. It's very good to do so, seeing you still need fast turnover when you're blazing down some steep hills, not to mention getting some strength to handle the impact on your legs.

Hoping to have some cooler mornings coming up so I can do some longer tempos.  I have found a few races to jump into as well, in hopes to race myself into shape since those races typically are the best workouts.  Mud Mountain XC is tomorrow, and looking to do the Hecker Tiki Trot 5K which we ran in 2010.  Very fun race, and one that I have wanted to do the last few years but hasn't worked out!  7 more weeks till wedding!

Wednesday, July 22nd - ~6 miles (2 up, 10 x hill, 2 down).  Did a hill workout during lunch, and found a doozy close to Creve Couer Park on Dorsett.  Parked in the park parking lot, then warmed up for 15 minute around the area.  Did repeats at hard effort going up and down, and quite honestly it sucked.  I am estimating those hills were ~250 meters, and was hitting ~60 seconds going up, and ~45 seconds going down.  Slow cooldown around the park to finish out this torture.  Not a fun workout to do at noon, despite the "cooler" temps.

Thursday, July 23rd - ~3.5 miles.  Ran with Crystal over in Lafayette Square, before meeting up with him and Craig for the Hot Chocolate Social Hour and Bailey's Chocolate Bar.  Crystal and I were both pretty beat, but managed to get in 30 minutes, which was almost exactly 4 loops.  Sunny and warm, but we had some shade and a nice breeze.  Afterwards, met up for the social hour and hung out with the RAM Racing team, and met some good people.  Fun times!

Easy run tonight.  Mud Mountain XC tomorrow.  No time goals - just want a good effort, and would like to place in my age group.  Going to be tough conditions, as I typically run very poorly on that course and it will be a hot one tomorrow.  Game plan is to run a conservative first mile, and save some energy for the hills.  In years past, the sub 6 minute first mile has always backfired, so let's see if I can learn from those experiences!

Remember me? 2015 Recap, thus far

I am going to try to be better about posting.  This year has been a complete trainwreck of busy-ness, but I am back to running on a consistent basis again.  We bought a new home this spring, and are preparing for a September wedding.  I had a great spring of running, but pretty much fell apart once the house search/buying process/moving began.  My races are below, with the exception of the KT Uncorked Relay which I ran in May.  Out and back from the same point on a RAINY morning, and ran ~12.4 miles a piece.  We won wire to wire, and had a lot of fun in the process.


1/24 - Belleville Chiro-Med Winter Luau 5K/1 Mile - 19:12 (4/528 Overall, 1/8 Age Group), 5:43 (1/43 overall) - Rough 5K on a cold morning, and got gapped right off the bat.  Worked my way into position, but the turns and hills beat me up pretty good.  Crystal and I doubled on the mile race, which was 20 minutes after the 5K finish.  Had a quick cooldown/warmup, and she and I pretty much led from start to finish.  Kept the effort honest, and just maintained for the W.  Nice morning to win a couple trophies and $100 for the W!

3/8 - AOH Top of the Hiberian 5K - 18:24 (10/837 overall, 1/30 Age Group) - Big race for me, as Coach Kyle said  I should run 18:30's no problem, but I had some doubts.  Felt very lethargic starting out, and kept a good effort on the way out.  Coming down the hill on the way back, made a tactical error in running on the other side of traffic (on the shoulder instead of swinging out to the open road), and ran on some crappy pavement and had to dodge a lot of the participants.  Reeled in a couple guys down the stretch, and hit the fastest 5K I've run in a few years!  This training is starting to kick in!

3/29 - Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K - 31:36 (442/22,873 overall, 30/1620 Age Group) - My spring goal race, and very disappointing.  Windy, cold morning, and ran with Coach Kyle but never felt very good from the start.  We split 6:08/6:10, and should have felt controlled but was struggling and let Kyle go.  The wheels started to fall off, and lost the mental battle and really fell apart after the 5K mark.  Was pretty upset at myself, and not happy as I was definitely fit to run something fast that day.

4/4 - Lincoln Half Marathon - 1:29:34 (39/1707 overall, 9/102 Age Group) - Kind of did this one for fun, as I had signed up awhile back for it but never really did much half training.  Ran into my buddy Rich Luers, and we decided to start together and work.  Felt pretty strong, as we hit a few 6:30's the start it off, then backed off as we both knew it would be rough coming in with some tough hills.  I broke off after the 5th mile, and was maintaining pretty good for awhile.  The second half was a bit rough, as the hills got me, and my turnover slowed substantially to more of a marathon shuffle.  Felt like I was leaking oil, but found some guys to target and finished the last mile strong to salvage a rough ending.  Perfect morning for racing, and nice to break 1:30 again at the very least.  Still feeling fit.

4/26 - Soul to Sole 5K - 18:24 (2/135 overall) - Raced this for fun, as my running had more or less gone to crap and wanted some turnover work.  Out and back on a hilly course, and felt like poop on the first mile.  Worked my way through the course, and out kicked a guy for 2nd place down the stretch.  One of the more patient races I've run, and the rust was pretty evident but a very solid time nonetheless.  Cash prize for top 3 was nice too :)

7/4 - Schnucks Freedom 4 Miler - 25:15 (21/880 overall, 6/97 Age Group) - Got forced to run this race by Jon, and had Joe as my pacer.  Hot, muggy day in Forest Park, and goal was to run a nice tempo effort around 6:30's.  Well, Joe had different ideas, and we got out pretty quick before slowing down a little bit.  Worked out way out of Forest Park, onto Lindell before turning by the History Museum and working our way back to the Muny.  We weren't going all out, and was nice to be passing people most of the race, especially at the end.  Had to make a last push with a quarter out, as one of the guys was closing fast but had enough to hold on.  Very pleased with this race.

7/10 - Red Bud Round of Knights 5K - 19:08 (9/50 overall, 2/3 Age Group) - Time to start racing myself back into shape.  Night race with Colby, Jon, and Hatch.  Rolling hills, and a hot, humid evening.  Split 5:50 on the first mile, and was in 11th place! - crazy for a race of 50 people.  Passed a couple guys, and ended up working in between groups and getting ate up on the hills.  More or less ran out of gas, and tried to hold on.  Jon and Colby finished 1-2, with Hatch 4th overall.  I brought in the rear, but enough to get an age group prize.  Not good, but not bad either.

Here is my 2015 so far, in pictures

Chiro Med 5K and 1 Mile Race in Jan

Spoils of War

Jonny and I at Toolen's 5K - season's bests for both of us!

With the Living Legend, himself

Spectating St. Patrick's Day 5 Miler - Crystal goes sub 30!

Last Lakeshore run for awhile - Anne and Ben moved :(

Crazy 24 hours of fun in Chi, before the move

Shamrock Shuffle 8K with Ryan and Coach Kyle

Rounding the last corner for the Springfield Half

Run Abe Half!

The Masters trip with John Daly

Par 3 contest with Nick and the Great One

Hole 13 at Augusta National with some fine gentlemen

Our first house!

Soul to Sole 5K - 2nd place overall and some cash winnings!

Kentucky Derby fun

Closing Day!

Spectating the Bonifest 5K with the course record holders

Thrilling finish at the Festival of Miles with Jordan McNamara's crazy kick for a 3:58 W!

Top 3 overall at the Route 66 10K - 3 buddies I run with!

Chicago Blackhawks are the Stanley Cup Champions!  Megan is not pleased (STL Blues fan)

Summer workout with my crew

Much needed pool time!

Fun at Ballpark Village before the Cardinals game

Freedom 4 Miler with Joe and Jon

4th of July patriotism at its finest

Red Bud 5K

Saturday, July 18th - ~4 miles.  Bright and early before golf, and it was a nasty morning.  Ran a couple with Megan and a couple loops solo.  Felt awful.  No idea of time, nor did I want to know.  

Sunday, July 19th - 90 minutes.  No idea of distance, but guessing around 11 miles?  6 a.m. start, and it definitely sucked getting up.  Looped around my old neighborhood, and did my old 159 loop and some Old Faithful action as well.  I was splitting 8:30's or so, and turned it off because the speed (or lack of) was freaking me out.  I'm not going to lie when I said I might have walked a little, but it was a rough run in general.  Actually a relatively cooler morning, as storms were making its way in.  

Monday, July 20th - ~5 miles.  40 minutes on the trails towards Troy,  Did yardwork until late, and my legs felt like poop but just got out there.  Bugs galore, but loosened up and picked off a ton of people on the trail and the neighborhood on the way back.  Felt strong.

Tuesday, July 21st - 6 miles.  Ran with Jon, bright and early this morning.  We did out and back towards Troy, and ran into Colby who was doing a longer run and did a few miles with him.  Weather was cooler, but still humid and was soaked by the time we made it back.  Nice to have this one out of the way.  47 minutes and some change, overall.

The rest of my summer is my attempt to get good miles and get into wedding shape!  7 more weeks to go!  Mud Mountain XC 5K is this weekend, and KT82 Relay is on Labor Day weekend (we got coerced into defending our title).  More to come...